Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Egypt, his first in ten years, has put a spotlight on the deepening ties between Beijing and the Middle East. Xi is meeting President Abdel Fattah El Sisi for talks on their strategic partnership and on regional affairs, at a moment when Gulf and North African states are increasingly courting Chinese investment.
The visit, coming as the two nations prepare to mark 70 years of relations, carries symbolic weight. Egypt was the first Arab and African country to recognise the People’s Republic of China, in 1956, and both sides have been keen to frame the trip as the next chapter in a long relationship.
Trade sits at the centre of it. Commerce between the two reached about 20.8 billion dollars in 2025, up from 17.4 billion, though heavily weighted toward Chinese exports. China has been Egypt’s largest trading partner for more than a decade.
Much of the focus is on joint projects running to 2028, spanning electric vehicles, renewable energy and manufacturing, a good deal of it clustered around the Suez Canal economic zone where Chinese firms have built industrial operations serving European and regional markets.
For the region, the visit is a reminder of how far China has expanded its footprint through trade and infrastructure rather than security commitments. For Egypt, it is part of a balancing act, keeping Western and Gulf ties while drawing in Chinese capital, and the trip reaffirms a partnership that has quietly become one of the region’s most consequential.
